Ebenezer Rogers was a member of the Plymouth Brethren and a Sunday school teacher. The Plymouth Brethren were a dissenting Christian group that believed the bible to be the ultimate religious authority - many of them believed this meant that they should be pacifists and over 600 Plymouth Brethren men became COs in the First World War. As a Sunday school teacher alongside his regular job as a shorthand typist, Ebenezer must have been a very religious man, and he argued his case as a religious CO at the Hackney Tribunal.

Despite applying for Absolute Exemption he was given Exemption from Combatant Service Only on the 10th March 1916 alongside several other Conscientious Objectors. Ebenezer accepted Non-Combatant service and was conscripted into the Non-Combatant Corps, a special section of the army set up to get COs to provide logistical and labour support to the army. They did not carry weapons and could not be ordered to move or handle weapons or ammunition. He was given a month to settle his affairs and joined the NCC at Stratford barracks on the 7th of November 1916.

COs that chose to join the NCC were known as “Alternativists” as they found it morally acceptable to do “Alternative” work to fighting in the army. For men like Ebenezer, the NCC was an acceptable compromise. They would acknowledge that they should help to support the war effort but would not take part in any activity designed to hurt or kill other people. Some NCC men were happy with this compromise as their conscientious objection was based on a personal right not to be forced to take life. Others went to the NCC only grudgingly.

Conscientious Objectors who accepted Non-Combatant Service and joined the army were expected to obey army rules and regulations. They were expected to leave their political and/or religious reasons for objecting to war behind and become obedient soldiers. Ebenezer must have found this difficult and towards the end of the war was in trouble for “Preaching in the High Street”. He was charged and sentenced to be confined to barracks for a short time. Despite accepting the NCC, he clearly found hit religious convictions hard to abandon in order to become a “good soldier”. NCC CO’s are often considered to have taken the path of least resistance, but their wartime experiences were often very difficult as military discipline took its toll.